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Mountain bikers using new Bonanza Flat shuttle ‘like a ski lift’

Park City’s new transit service to Bonanza Flat has seen increasing ridership. Parking violations at area trailheads are also down.

(Parker Malatesta | KPCW) Park City's purple bus to Bonanza Flat can accommodate up to eight bikes per trip.

Park City extended the purple bus route in July to begin serving the Bonanza Flat and Bloods Lake trailheads, two popular recreation hubs at the upper elevations of the Wasatch Range.

On average the route has seen over 400 riders daily during weekends this summer. However, just recently on Saturday Sept. 20, there were more than 800 riders, which city staff attributed to the changing fall colors in the area.

Park City Transit Manager Bill DeGroot said that day there was a consistent line of around 25 people for hours waiting to take the trip up.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are going round trips and kind of using it kind of like a ski lift,” DeGroot told the Park City Council Sept. 25. “Which is the perfect purpose of that type of service — to see how we can have less of a single car use impact and more of a transit impact.”

Park City began charging for parking at Bonanza Flat trailheads for the first time this year. The new transit service was launched in tandem, to provide hikers and bikers a way to enjoy the trails without having to pay parking fees.

Read the full story at KPCW.org.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.